Fortec proved quickest ahead of DAMS on the second day of Formula Renault 3.5 testing at Jerez in Southern Spain.
Oliver Rowland led teammate Sergey Sirotkin over the course of the morning session, while DAMS duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Norman Nato raised their profile in the afternoon.
The top time from day one was already beaten by Nato in the morning session, with Marlon Stockinger, Jaafar and Pierre Gasly all proving their worth on the clock; however Rowland nabbed the early headlines before the chequered flag flew for the morning. “I did a pretty good lap this morning, but there’s still a bit more to come. This afternoon, our pace on used tyres wasn’t that far off the pace set by the DAMS cars on new tyres. However, it’s testing and things will be different once the season gets underway.”
Rowland continued: “Let’s hope that with the experience of Sergey, I can learn from him and he can do the same and we can improve our performances. Tomorrow I’ll be focussing on doing a race simulation.”
It was a somewhat similar story in the morning, with Sainz Jr, Ellinas and Nikolai Martsenko adding their presence at the top of the time sheets, with Nato eventually slotting in 2nd spot behind his Spanish teammate.
“We tried a different set-up on the car in each session,” noted Sainz. “I was pretty happy this morning so we were able to save tyres for the afternoon. It looks pretty good for the time being, but let’s see what happens tomorrow. The times should be more representative as all the drivers and the teams will have the same basis and objective.”
